The chief executive of A123 Systems Inc. — one of Michigan’s most celebrated alternative energy companies and a major recipient of federal economic stimulus dollars and state incentives — conceded that a shakeout is coming for the U.S. battery industry.

How Michigan’s emerging battery industry will fare during that process — and whether manufacturers will add the thousands of jobs they promised to create in exchange for government cash and tax incentives — is unclear.

Less than two weeks after Massachusetts-based A123 laid off 125 workers at its Michigan battery plants, A123 CEO David Vieau agreed that some of the early entrants into the lithium-ion battery race eventually will lose.